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Tumunzahar makes Menegroth look like a contract project. Which, the Dwarves assure her, it was. The stonework is astonishingly careful and beautiful, silky to the touch up close while from a distance it gives the impression of stretching on forever above, a sky of stone with crystals for stars. Vast natural cave systems are connected by dozens of perfectly smooth, gently sloped broad stone pathways from which the fall, if she fell, would be several miles down. There are handrails. "We use those to move materials carts," someone explains to her, "we're not going to be reckless."
There's an amphitheater, a place where a hundred of the stone walkways twine around to create space for a hundred thousand people to sit in close proximity, and someone is giving a lecture or a demonstration at the base of it, the seats closest to him filled with eager, tiny, bearded Dwarf-children.
And they spiral down, and down, and down, past waterfalls and egg-sized gemstones left half in the rock and halls of crystal. Everything grows gradually more ornate and more perfectly maintained and the clang of hammers fades behind them. "People say," her guide says, "that we only have a council instead of a single King because there were nine winners of the competition to design the throne so we couldn't just select one person to sit it." And they push open the doors to reveal, indeed, nine thrones so elaborate it would be hard to choose between them, and nine squat bearded people sitting them.
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That's worrying. How so?
purposeful_glory
You've seen the transcripts. He'll seem functional and then - cease abruptly and I can't reliably predict it. He was smiling while we were playing Governor, then he was - still smiling, but -
I'll be able to reach him probably as soon as we're in eastern Beleriand. Is it better to contact him then, or wait until we're at Tumunzahar?
purposeful_glory
I cannot guarantee he will not just leap off his balcony as soon as he hears you. I don't know.
In that case I suppose we should go in and find him.
If he had all relevant information he'd agree to this, and not just out of suicidal self-loathing and despair. That's not good enough for me, but -
If he had all relevant information he'd agree to this, and not just out of suicidal self-loathing and despair. That's not good enough for me, but -
purposeful_glory
This is going to look rather awful from the perspective of thinking it's a hallucination. I don't kidnap him to go see Thauron so as to remain in-character, and then shortly afterward here are me and relatives he doesn't want to talk to with a more compelling reason to go see Thauron!
Yes. I don't see how we can do it without him, though.
He committed a while ago to lie down and stop responding if any of us tried to interact with him. If he does that, will you carry him?
purposeful_glory
I remain highly averse to kidnapping. Why is it you need to deliver your father's orders directly?
Information security. If you really think it's going to be a disaster for him, we can do it, but the more people who know something the more of a problem - if Thauron takes anyone alive in the fighting -
Also, everyone here is someone he knows fairly well.
Also, everyone here is someone he knows fairly well.
purposeful_glory
I'm trying to come up with something involving a letter with dismissible obscuring illusion on it so a Dwarf can deliver it - or me strategically turning off Allspeak or something.
Worth a try. Can someone be invisibly present to stop him if he tries to kill himself?
purposeful_glory
He asked me, the other day, if I'd stop him if he jumped -
And you wouldn't, which is commendable given the situation. I would, because I can't let my brother die like that.
purposeful_glory
Sigh. I can turn someone who can hear the message invisible, ask him via Dwarf if he'll see me, record without understanding a message, replay it without understanding it.
Thank you.
purposeful_glory
Eventually he is going to notice that the strategic situation he's being invited to react to would be pointless as an exercise if false -
And we're not asking for a strategic reaction. We're asking for his assent to walk a few hundred miles with us. It's fine if he refuses to comment on what we're doing.
purposeful_glory
Yes, I'm now instead dwelling on what he's going to think of all this in retrospect upon realizing it happened.
He's going to regret not being more likable towards you since you're obviously a valuable resource and it'd be good if you liked and trusted him.
My point is that, once he becomes persuaded that all this is real, his opinion about past events is going to be dominated by wishing he'd used his avenues for influence better, not by being angry that you knew what he went through and were prepared to see it done again a hundred times over. He has the rest of us to care about his wellbeing, he doesn't do it himself.